GK vet, financier forge Solution

Wilson and Nestel launch international sales and financing banner

Former GK Films exec Lisa Wilson and film financier Myles Nestel have launched The Solution Entertainment Group, an international sales and financing shingle.

Funded through approximately $50 million in private equity, company aims to back about eight to 10 movies a year at a variety of budgets up to about $50 million.

The duo said finding quality scripts will an imperative, as will determination that financiers will bank on the property.

“I think the days when people were buying movies without reading the script are definitely gone,” Wilson told Variety during a interview Friday.

“We only want to sell product that we know is financed,” Nestel added. “We don’t want to sell air.”

A former investment banker, Nestel raised coin to launch film financing shingle Oceana Media Finance in 2007. He said that while The Solution Entertainment Group has already locked down its initial coin, the firm’s goal is to raise an additional $100 million to $200 million that would allow the shingle to fully finance films in excess of $50 million.

“The key thing is: You make the film for the right price, given what it is,” said Nestel. “I don’t think we are in the business of competing with the studio tentpole movies. We are in the business of tentpole movies within the independent world.”

Nestel said that having Wilson on board will help attract investors. “The capital markets are responding really well to a senior exec,” he said.

Wilson headed GK Films’ international distribution from 2008 to 2011, where she handled pics including Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” and “The Rum Diary.” While at GK, Wilson also helped launch Parlay Films, an affiliated sales company for third-party pictures.

Up first for The Solution Entertainment Group is the Berlin Film Fest, where the execs will be shopping Peter Chelsom’s “Hector and the Search for Happiness” as well as “Writers” from Informant Media.

“Hector” tells the story of a charming but confused young psychiatrist’s global adventures in search of happiness, while dramedy “Writers” centers around an acclaimed novelist’s relationship with his ex-wife, collegiate daughter and teenage son over one tumultuous year.